INSTRUCTOR HAS THE FLU - CLASSES CANCELLED - INSTRUCTIONS BELOW

Hello Everyone,

It's with regret I inform everyone that I caught the flu over the weekend and have to cancel classes. The timing isn't great considering it's the first class of November, but we should be fine as long as we continue our current pace! If you find a student that is in my class, please inform of the following email.

I'll leave a folder on the server for each class labeled (QUESTIONS_AND_FEEDBACK) for all of you in case you have questions about your animation projects for me.  The one required thing I will ask of every student is to drop the current versions of any art you have today on the server, and email me any questions you may have. When I'm not getting medicine and the like, I'll be sure to answer and send them back to you.

The following post below mentions what each of my classes will be doing today look for your class in question for details:

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DM 325

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Place drafts of your animation work on the server in the folder mentioned above. Email me any questions you may have.

This week, we were covering the last 2 major principles of animation, appeal and exaggeration! Continue working on your animated piece, focusing on appeal and exaggeration this week.

Links to videos about each are below:

Alan Becker Tutorials: Exaggeration

Alan Becker Tutorials: Appeal

APPEAL IS PRACTICED FROM THE GETGO!

You may notice that Appeal, as a concept, is something we have been covering since the first day we talked about the principles behind excellent character design.  The focus lies inherently in design for animation, and in creating characters that read clearly at a moment's notice.  A clear design generates appeal by communicating clearly!  Be willing to double back into your designs, and make note of any simplifications you have made to your art since we started.

APPEALING DESIGNS ARE ENHANCED THROUGH CONVINCING ACTION!

By this point, each of you have produced compelling content in your animated works this semester.  What you should do to maximize your appeal this week is by conveying actions that give us opportunity to show the heart of your character's personality. Be willing to exaggerate the actions of your animation to show us the heart of who your character happens to be!

1. Whatever direction your character is moving in, propel the character farther.
2. When drawing your character with a specific emotion, make that emotion much more intense so it reads clearer to us!
3. When your character is moving, experiment with squash and stretch a little more than usual to create much more vibrant impacts and expressions!
4. As a reminder from the video, it is sometimes a good idea to exaggerate too much at first, and then dial it back to where you need your movement to be. You accomplish this by.

• Sketching your action out, exaggerating keys farther than normal.
• Erasing the end or the beginning of your action and redrawing the keys incrementally closer to how they would be in real life. (more subtle, more muted.)

We should see your character's personality through design, and through the REACTION of your character to the circumstances going on.  Ask yourself, "When my character does X, how should he or she react?"

ARTICLE: RALPH BAKSHI on MODERN ANIMATION

Now that we've learned the rules of animation, this week we break them. Below, I've included a link below an interview with Ralph Bakshi. He's a famous animator who made a number of important works over the years.  At age 77, he has a very opinionated approach to animation, in many ways contrary to the traditionally established rules most follow.  He also has words for young animators, I.E. everyone 76 and younger. I'd like you to read the article, and tell me what you think about it on your blog.

http://www.cartoonbrew.com/interviews/i-love-animators-i-just-want-them-to-wake-up-a-birthday-interview-with-ralph-bakshi-120559.html

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Again, my apologies on missing class with you today. I'll be available via email for anyone whom has questions. If you need anything, please be sure to contact me ASAP. I will be back in class Wednesday.

Happy Monday Everyone!

Scheduling For Animation:

The following is a sample timeline for putting together an animated piece. (credit to https://3danimationproject.files.wordpress.com)

While the colors leave something to be desired, The above is pretty clear!  Each week is labeled at the top, and down the side of the sheet is a collection of duties needed to be completed.  To add one extra step, each of the boxes inside would be marked with the portion of the work that needs to be completed. (Example: Scene 1, scene 2, scene 3.)

Layout and Environments *stamped posting*

(posting for the next two weeks: Secondary Action)

Hey everyone!

Below I will start adding a list of environment demonstrations to help you in producing your own content!  Expect a list of resources to the right of your blog in the near future!

Environments can be challenging to produce, but when you approach them with the idea of it being like a stage for a play, it becomes easier to produce content!

The first examples are from SAMURAI JACK.  Here, the artist draws a black and white image first, making sure to denote every hard edge for the work produced.  Then, with traditional media, the artist paints solid volumetric shapes that represents each part of the object. That way, we do not get lost in details, and we ultimately see the totality of the work produced! The same approach can be applied digitally in photoshop, working first with flat color, and adding texture on top!

FOR A CEL SHADED APPROACH, IT MAY BE EASIEST TO PRODUCE YOUR ENVIRONMENTS IN TOONBOOM!

Samurai Jack: Painting Demo 1
Samurai Jack: Painting Demo 2
Samurai Jack: Painting Demo 3
Samurai Jack: Painting Demo 4

Static Images of Samurai Jack's Environments

The next approach is producing a singular black and white image.  This piece represents the LIGHTING that is needed on top of your artwork. Producing it primarily in black and white makes it easier to convey dynamic lighting for your art!

Check out the link below, and look at some of the conceptual art designs for Mulan, produced by Alex Nino and company.

Alex Nino:  Environment Concepts for Mulan on Pinterest

In some cases, people tend to start with a black and white image, lay flat color, and place in layers of shadow across the entire image to show more of what is going on!  This builds depth, texture, and creates an easy approach for creating more painterly art!

Take a look at this link to HANS BACHER's work on mulan.  You can see the final color designs for shots were much simpler, and much more expressive than the concept art! This was achieved over time, taking out everything that wasn't needed, and only keeping what was necessary.

Hans Bacher: Environments pt 1
Hans Bacher: Environment concepts (part 2)

As an extra note, use your own personal skills to produce the best environments you can!  For those of you that have 3D skills, you may be able to create models you could use as placeholders or sketches for your work in your film!

Hans Bacher's Blog: Animation Treasures


For those who are into more realism, check out the link below. This stylistic approach is done by an illustrator and animator known as Kevin Dart (powerpuff girls, symbionic titan, yuki seven, steven universe, among others)

Link to Kevin Dart's other work.

Take photographic reference of a REAL place you want to use as an environment, and make note of the COLORS that are used in that environment!  Apply those COLORS to your drawing to create a much more realistic and believable place in lighting and content! Better lighting = Better Colors + More specific content = Much more believable space!

Midterms Checklist for DM 325

In the MIDTERMS DROPOFF folder, submit a folder labeled as firstname_lastname.  Inside it, I would like you to include the following:

1.  Two Animation videos, marked as "firstname__lastname_Wk1" and "firstname_lastname_wk2"
2.  Any design elements you have created for your film!
Character designs
environment designs
color charts, etc.
3. Your storyboards for your production.
4. Your animatic for your production.
5.  If you have updated your assessment from the beginning of the semester, resubmit your storyboards and animation from the beginning of the semester!
6. A list of your notes for yourself on your current progress with your project! I want to know what you plan to do with your film, any elements (color, FX, character changes etc.) you plan to add to your story! The more information you can provide the better!

For midterms I will be grading you on the following:

A. Craftsmanship (20%): Line-art quality.  How clean are your lines in each section of your animation? Is your character the focal point of your animation, or are the rough lines the focal point?

B. Modeling (20%): How consistent is your character between every frame of your animation?  Do limbs get too thin and then too thick?

C. Performance (20%): Are we captivated by the actions on screen?  Is your animation about the character? Are the performances believable and relatable if we look at your animation as an actor and as the audience?

D. Clarity of storytelling (20%):  What is the story of each animation?  Is the story coming across?

E. Techniques:  Are you demonstrating the principles we've learned in class?

• Animation creation: Performance is Key!  It's all about how we act and bring our characters to life!
• Environment Design: Staging and Function Is the most important! We need environments that serve our character's purpose and provide CONTEXT to the scene!
• Character design:  Big, Medium, and Small Forms, Clear Silhouettes, Shape Symbolism, etc.
• Animation segment 1: Straight Ahead and Pose to Pose animation. Staging and Solid Drawing!
• Animation segment 2: Arcs! (Solid and Solid Drawing!)

Animation Week 1 | Today's Topic: Staging, Pose to Pose, and Timing!

The following resource will be used in class as extra examples for you! This is a list of visual examples created by Alan Becker, who gained some fame across the internets for his "Animator vs Animation" series from 2006 onward.

https://www.youtube.com/user/AlanBeckerTutorials/videos


The current video we'll cover in class is the following:

STAGING:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u-SXLaQGg50

POSE to POSE vs. STRAIGHT AHEAD Drawing: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v8quCbt4C-c

Solid Drawing: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7An0jukOkCI

Reminder: Homework for Tonight and Wednesday

Note: This homework is for ALL students, regardless of if you were in class or not monday or wednesday!

1.  Make a blog for blogger.  Email me the link before 6PM on Tuesday, September 15th.
2.  On your blog, you need to scan your drawings for your animation. Number and post your storyboards, and include a description of them for the students in the class.
3. Tuesday night, read all of the stories for every student and post comments and feedback on them to their blogs!  I will do the same.
4. For Extra Credit:  Take what we learned in class, and begin crafting out sketches and concepts for your characters for your animation!

Homework for this Wednesday!

A. Send me an email with the following:

• The 40 things that serve as your reflection on your work.
• A summary of your experiences from these two weeks. Treat it as the assessment it really is! Write down what you have learned and what you need to improve upon! Think about what you want to focus on improving in your art during the semester!
• A video file of your animation, and your scanned in storyboards (if the filesize is too big, make a smaller video for me!)
• The notes from the two videos in the previous post:  (Jackie Chan: Action Comedy & Edgar Wright: Visual Comedy)
• An ESTIMATE of how long it takes you to animate a scene. (six seconds, or one scene with three different actions)

B. Come to class with 3 ideas for your film!  Bring sketches, environment designs, etc, but be able to summarize each idea into a SINGLE SENTENCE. This serves as both your "elevator pitch" and a way to better know the core of your story!

C. Bring a pack of index cards, know a bit about how you want to make your story, and get ready to work on something new! =)